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Page 1: Interpreting fatigue tests in hot mix asphalt (HMA) using ...

TRANSPORTES v. 23, n. 2 (2015), p. 85-94 85

Interpreting fatigue tests in hot mix asphalt (HMA) using concepts from viscoelasticity and damage mechanics

Lucas Feitosa de Albuquerque Lima Babadopulos1, Jorge Barbosa Soares2,

Verônica Teixeira Franco Castelo Branco3

Resumo: O futuro método brasileiro de dimensionamento de pavimentos asfálticos possivelmente recomendará, em um

nível básico, a realização do ensaio de compressão diametral de carga repetida como ferramenta para a caracterização de

fadiga de misturas asfálticas. Em um nível mais avançado, caracterizações mecanísticas incluem a obtenção de propriedades

de dano para posterior simulação do comportamento do material. Neste trabalho, duas misturas asfálticas foram avaliadas. A

mais rígida delas foi obtida após o envelhecimento da mistura asfáltica original. Estas apresentaram comportamentos seme-

lhantes quanto às propriedades de dano (curva característica de dano segundo o Simplified Viscoelastic Continuum Damage

- S-VECD - model). Porém, a mistura asfáltica envelhecida necessitou de seis vezes mais ciclos até a ruptura do material

durante o ensaio por compressão diametral, se comparada à mistura asfáltica de referência. O controle da força aplicada

durante os pulsos de carga, em vez da tensão, leva à execução de carregamentos diferentes em materiais diferentes. Não

havendo inversão do sinal do carregamento, a fluência se acumula levando o material ao dano e à ruptura. Misturas asfálticas

mais rígidas e com parcela de comportamento viscoso menos pronunciada tendem a apresentar melhor resposta (maior nú-

mero de repetições de carga antes da ruptura) nesse ensaio. Consequentemente, seu uso pode levar a falsas conclusões sobre

a resistência à fadiga de misturas asfálticas.

Palavras-chave: caracterização de fadiga, propriedades de dano S-VECD, tensão controlada, caracterização mecanística, misturas asfálticas.

Abstract: The upcoming Brazilian asphalt pavement design method is likely to recommend, in a more basic level, the

controlled force indirect tensile fatigue test as a tool for asphalt mixture fatigue characterization. In a more advanced level,

mechanistic characterization includes the damage properties measurement for subsequent material behavior simulation. In

this paper two different asphalt mixtures were investigated. The stiffer one was obtained after aging of the original mix. They

presented similar behavior when it comes to damage properties (damage characteristic curve following the Simplified Vis-

coelastic Continuum Damage - S-VECD - model). However, the aged mix needed six times more cycles to failure, compared

to the original one, in the indirect tensile fatigue test. The force control, instead of the stress control, leads to the application

of different stresses for different materials. As there is no signal inversion, creep flow accumulates, leading to damage and

failure. Stiffer mixtures and mixtures presenting less viscous behavior tend to present a better response when those tests are

considered. Consequently, it can lead to false conclusions about asphalt mixture fatigue resistance.

Keywords: fatigue characterization, S-VECD damage properties, controlled stress, mechanistic characterization, asphalt mixtures.

1. INTRODUCTION

Asphalt pavements rarely fail due to ultimate loads.

Rather, load repetition causes different phenomena within

the asphalt layer leading to pavement distresses. Those phe-

nomena are influenced by climate, traffic and pavement

structure. One of the main distresses in asphalt pavements

is the fatigue failure of the surface layer, which is driven by

the loading repetition that induces the fatigue phenomenon

and is controlled by the asphalt mixture damage behavior.

A manner in which fatigue presents itself is the so-called

alligator fatigue cracking. Some indices obtained in the

field are based on the distribution of this type of crack in the

pavement surface. Typically, 20% of cracked area is con-

sidered as pavement failure due to fatigue. However, indi-

ces like those are not meaningful in laboratory fatigue tests.

Instead, the number of cycles to failure at a given load level

or, alternatively, the material damage characteristics, which

translate the damage behavior of the material, are obtained.

Repeated load laboratory tests in cylindrical, prismatic or

trapezoidal specimens are mostly used to induce damage to

samples and to produce information for fatigue analysis.

Homogeneous tests, as the axial tension-compression tests

in cylinders, are preferable, in order to produce data exploit-

able in a simpler manner, using results from experiments

which are more likely to be consistent with the modeling

hypotheses (Di Benedetto and De La Roche, 1998).

There are different ways to estimate in-field fatigue

evolution using laboratory tests. For example, results of

number of cycles to failure from the controlled force indi-

rect tensile tests in cylindrical samples can be used to con-

struct Whöler curves (log-log straight lines relating the

number of cycles to failure to the either an indicator of the

stress or of the strain level) using data obtained at different

predefined stress levels. A material performance database is

needed in order to establish values for laboratory-to-field

shift factors. Those factors translate how the laboratory test

"accelerates" the fatigue phenomenon with respect to field

performance and they are used to estimate the service life

of a proposed pavement structure using the results from

Whöler curves and pavements elastic analysis. The elastic

analysis is commonly performed using the resilient modu-

lus as the stiffness parameter for the asphalt layer. There are

many issues related to such approach which lead to shift

factors of the order of 104 as used in Brazil, and that is a

1 Lucas Feitosa de Albuquerque Lima Babadopulos, Laboratório de

Mecânica dos Pavimentos, Departamento de Engenharia de

Transportes, UFC.([email protected])

2 Jorge Barbosa Soares, Laboratório de Mecânica dos Pavimentos, Departamento de Engenharia de Transportes, UFC. ([email protected])

3 Verônica Teixeira Franco Castelo Branco, Laboratório de Mecânica

dos Pavimentos, Departamento de Engenharia de Transportes, UFC.

([email protected])

Manuscrito recebido em 12/03/2015 e aprovado para publicação em 22/06/2015. Este artigo é parte de TRANSPORTES v. 23, n. 2, 2015. ISSN: 2237-1346 (online). DOI: 10.14295/transportes.v23i2.898

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BABADOPULOS, L.F.A.L.; SOARES, J.B.; CASTELO BRANCO, V.T.F.

86 TRANSPORTES v. 23, n. 2 (2015), p. 85-94

main concern of this paper. Some of those issues are ad-

dressed herein. Brazil is currently undergoing a national ef-

fort to develop its own mechanistic-empirical asphalt pave-

ment design method, based on a national pavement material

database and on the performance of test sections monitored

throughout the country. A first version of the design guide

is planned for 2016 and it will possibly use the aforemen-

tioned state-of-the-practice method to predict fatigue life. It

should be pointed out that the design method is being de-

veloped in such a way to allow incorporating future im-

provements in material characterization. Therefore, the de-

velopment of better fatigue prediction models with corre-

spondence to field data is encouraged. In this sense, this pa-

per attempts to call attention for a potential method that can

be used in the near future in our country, once it gathers the

proper validation.

Another way of estimating the fatigue life of asphalt

pavements is by measuring damage properties (as for exam-

ple damage characteristic curves following the Simplified

Viscoelastic Continuum Damage - S-VECD - model) of the

asphalt mixture prior to fatigue life estimation. Such pur-

pose can be achieved by using the continuum damage the-

ory, based on Schapery's work potential models. The re-

ferred approach allows a more rigorous consideration of the

loading conditions (including temperature and loading

speed or frequency) prior to the estimation of the fatigue life

and it is already in use in the United States (there is a pro-

visional test standard available, AASHTO TP 107, 2014).

The provisional standard proposes the application of the

Simplified Viscoelastic Continuum Damage (S-VECD)

model to represent asphalt mixture damage behavior. The

direct tension-compression test is used because it induces a

homogeneous state of stress, allowing easier interpretation

of the test results.

The part of this paper dealing with viscoelastic dam-

age characterization uses the method proposed by

AASHTO TP 107 (2014) as a guideline to interpret damage

behavior and to analyze fatigue resistance of two different

asphalt mixtures. The materials prepared for testing differ

only with respect to their stiffness (unaged and aged mix-

ture). The interpretation of the controlled force indirect ten-

sile tests results compiled in Whöler curves is compared

with the interpretation of the controlled crosshead direct

tension-compression tests.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

This section briefly presents the concepts behind the

models and the tests discussed in this paper. Extended ex-

planation of every aspect covered is provided in Babadopu-

los (2014).

2.1. State-of-the-Practice Characterization

The resilient modulus (RM) test is standardized in

Brazil by ABNT (NBR 16018, 2011) and also by DNER

(1994). Internationally, other standards and test protocols

are available, such as the NCHRP 1-28A (2003). This test

consists of a controlled force indirect tensile test with peri-

ods of loading intercalated by rest periods. RM test in Brazil

is typically conducted with 0.1s loading and 0.9s rest peri-

ods, using the least force necessary to produce enough de-

formation for the LVDT measurements or a low percentage

of the indirect tensile strength (ITS). RM is defined as the

relation between the tension stress and the "recoverable"

tension strain at the center of the specimen. The definition

of "recoverable" strain varies from standard to standard, be-

ing a portion of the total strain generated in a loading cycle

(Ponte et al., 2014). Because of the assumption that recov-

erable strain is used in the RM calculation, it is considered

that only elastic strain is present in the test, although this is

not true for asphalt mixtures (Soares and Souza, 2003). Be-

fore the loading cycles in which RM is measured, condi-

tioning is applied to the sample. During the conditioning

cycles, the RM value changes from a cycle to the following

cycle more than during the cycles after that conditioning

process. This happens because the material is viscoelastic

and it flows more in the beginning of the test. The RM test

is most commonly conducted in pneumatic testing ma-

chines in Brazil.

The most used fatigue test in Brazil is the repeated

load controlled force indirect tensile test, for which there is

still no standard procedure. Percentages of the ITS of the

material are used as reference stresses in the test, i.e., the

corresponding load is applied to the specimen to generate

that stress value in the mid center of the cylinder. Typically

three samples per stress amplitude are used, and a log-log

graph is produced with the number of cycles to failure

against the difference between compression and tension

stress in the midpoint of the cylinder specimen (Wöhler

curves). Although it appears to be a controlled stress test,

only the stress at the first cycle corresponds to the intended

"controlled stress", because damage evolves in the material

and the force applied to the sample is distributed in smaller

cross sectional areas as the load cycles progress, until fail-

ure. In addition, as loading is always imposed in the same

direction (compression for the vertical diametral line and

tension for the horizontal diametral line), failure is not

caused only by fatigue. The loading can be interpreted as

the sum of a constant creep loading and a deviator loading.

Both excessive flow and deviator loading are capable of in-

ducing damage to the sample, thus it is very difficult to ex-

tract information related only to fatigue damage and failure

from this test. This has been already observed in the litera-

ture (Di Benedetto and De La Roche, 1998), and creep flow

can actually be more important than the deviator (related to

fatigue) response of asphalt mixtures depending on testing

temperatures. Higher temperatures, such as 25ºC, lead to

more creep flow and mislead repeated load controlled force

test interpretation. Then, it is noticed that the test geometry

used in the indirect tensile test appears to be determinant to

the difficulty in obtaining useful data for fatigue prediction

in the field. That is due to many reasons, such as inhomo-

geneity, complex distribution of stress and strain in the sam-

ple and difficulty in respecting modeling hypotheses (such

as linearity, among others) during the tests. The reader may

refer to Di Benedetto and De La Roche, 1998, Soares and

Souza (2003), and Babadopulos et al. (2013) for further in-

formation on the topic.

2.2. State-of-the-Art Characterization

2.2.1. Linear Viscoelastic Model

Prior to the fatigue characterization, linear viscoelas-

tic testing and characterization is required. The main test

used is the complex modulus test. It leads to the results of

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TRANSPORTES, v. 23, n. 2 (2015), p. 85-94 87

dynamic modulus and phase angle, which represent the lin-

ear viscoelastic behavior. It relates the amplitudes (dynamic

modulus) and the delay (phase angle) of stress and strain

signals in a steady state for a harmonic loading. It allows

analytical accounting for temperature and time dependency

of the material behavior. The complex modulus test consists

of applying harmonic compressive loading and obtaining

the resulting strains using LVDT's mounted to the sample.

Samples of 100mm diameter by 150mm height are gener-

ally used. AASHTO T 342 (2011) can be applied. Testing

at different temperatures (temperature sweep) and using dif-

ferent loading frequencies (frequency sweep) together with

the application of the time-temperature (or frequency-tem-

perature) superposition principle (TTSP) allows the con-

struction of master curves for both the dynamic modulus

and the phase angle. Prony series parameters can be ob-

tained by fitting model prediction to storage modulus (real

part of complex modulus, or the product between dynamic

modulus and the cosine of the phase angle) and used to es-

timate other linear viscoelastic properties. The absolute

value (or norm) of the complex modulus (*E , known as

dynamic modulus) grows with the increase in loading fre-

quency, and decreases with growing temperature. This

property, along with the phase angle (lag between stress and

strain signals), describes the linear viscoelastic material be-

havior in the frequency domain. If only linear viscoelastic

behavior occurs during loading, stress history t can be

predicted from strain history t using the convolution in-

tegral in Equation 1, which uses the linear viscoelastic ma-

terial property known as the relaxation modulus ( E t ).

2.2.2. Viscoelastic Continuum Damage Model

A test typically used for obtaining damage properties

in mechanistic characterization is the controlled crosshead

direct tension-compression test. Neither the stress nor the

bulk strain in the sample is controlled. Test is controlled by

the actuator displacement. The procedure is described by

AASHTO TP 107 (2014). An illustrative example from Ba-

badopulos (2014) is briefly presented here. Evolution of

stress and strain amplitudes during a typical controlled

crosshead test is presented in Figure 1. However, the versa-

tility of the model allows the use of these tests to obtain the

damage characteristic curve and also the failure criteria to

estimate fatigue behavior of the tested material in various

loading conditions. After obtaining the material damage

curves, as described here, a simulation procedure using

those properties and a given loading path is necessary to fi-

nally conclude about the fatigue behavior of the material for

that specific loading path.

For the laboratory fatigue analysis, signal processing

is required in order to obtain stress and strain amplitudes

and phase lags during the tests. After signals of all loading

cycles are processed, Figure 2 can be plotted. That figure

presents the decrease in modulus and the increase in on-

specimen LVDT (black dotted line) and in actuator LVDT

(gray line) phase lags with respect to the force pulse during

a controlled crosshead fatigue test. For the on-specimen

LVDT displacement measurement, a mean of three LVDTs,

positioned 120º apart in the axis of the cylindrical sample,

is used. The number of cycles to failure can be defined from

the phase angle drop associated with the measurements of

the on-specimen LVDTs.

Using the results from the signal processing, the dam-

age calculation routine can be executed. In order to analyze

viscoelastic problems in a simpler way, Schapery (1984)

proposed the elastic-viscoelastic correspondence principle,

which allows the use of known classical solutions for elastic

problems to produce solutions for the corresponding prob-

lems in viscoelasticity. An easier way to interpret the re-

ferred principle is represented by Equation 2.

Where

R is called the pseudo strain and RE is the

reference modulus, which is an arbitrary constant that has

the same unit as the relaxation modulus  E t . Observe that,

if the RE value is set to 1, the pseudo strain will have the

same value as the linear viscoelastic stress, predicted from

the convolution integral (Equation 1). So, in linear viscoe-

lastic conditions, the pseudo secant modulus (ratio between

0

.t

t E t u duu

; t 0 (1)

0

1.

t

R

R

E t u duE u

; t 0 (2)

Figure 1. Example of evolution of stress amplitude (in gray) and mean on-specimen strain amplitude (in black) during controlled crosshead tests

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

0

2000

4000

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000

Stre

ss A

mp

lidu

de

(kP

a)

N

Stress Amplitude (kPa) Strain Amplitude (microstrains)

Stra

in A

mp

litu

de

(mic

rost

rain

s)

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BABADOPULOS, L.F.A.L.; SOARES, J.B.; CASTELO BRANCO, V.T.F.

88 TRANSPORTES v. 23, n. 2 (2015), p. 85-94

and R , or / RC ) will be equal to 1. However, as

internal microstructure changes (such as the evolving dam-

age), the stress actually required for loading may decrease,

so the pseudo secant modulus decreases. In other words, the

slope of vs R decreases. C is assumed to be only a

function of the damage accumulation, i.e., C C S . In

addition, an evolution law for the damage accumulation

must be chosen. Most researchers use the damage evolution

law described in Equation 3 (Park et al., 1996).

In Equation 3, is a material dependent constant directly

related to creep or relaxation material properties (i.e., its

ability to relax stresses). If m denotes the maximum log-

log derivative of the relaxation modulus of the material over

all the time spectrum, the expression 1 1/ m (as first

proposed by Park et al., 1996) is commonly used for dis-

placement controlled tests, while 1/ m is more used for

force controlled tests. The parameter can be directly es-

timated from the Prony series fitted to the experimental

stiffness data. It is to be observed that the chosen expression

(Equation 3) did not lead to a simple unit for the damage

variable S (

/ 1 1/ 1

stress time

). A simple way to

look at the damage accumulation variable is as a parameter

that is used to "count" damage, so, S can be regarded as a

"damage counting".

There are two important experimental assumptions

for the development of the S-VECD model. The first one is

that C S should be a unique function independent of the

applied loading conditions (cyclic vs monotonic loading,

amplitude/rate, frequency) and temperature (Daniel and

Kim, 2002). The second one is that TTSP is still valid after

damage accumulation (Chehab, 2002). Those considera-

tions allow faster laboratory damage and fatigue character-

ization of asphaltic materials, combined with the fact that

cyclic tests can be used to obtain both the C vs S curves

and the failure criteria. The tests are shorter because of the

use of higher loading amplitudes, which lead to fatigue fail-

ure more rapidly, consequently reducing laboratory time. In

addition, time-temperature superposition coefficients do

not need to be fit for each damage state. Together with those

advantages, good agreement between prediction and test re-

sults, and between prediction and real scale data (FHWA's

Accelerated Loading Facility) have been presented in liter-

ature (Underwood et al., 2009). Those reasons motivate the

use of this method for damage characterization of asphalt

mixtures.

Underwood et al. (2012) provide the formulation of

the S-VECD and exemplifies its use for fatigue modeling,

while AASHTO TP 107 (2014) presents the details for the

test procedures and calculation process, which ends up with

the experimental characterization of the damage curve for a

given material. Testing at different conditions allows veri-

fying the agreement of the model with respect to the obser-

vations (indicated by the collapse of multiple damage char-

acteristic curves obtained at different conditions with dif-

ferent samples).

Despite the fact that a complete presentation of the

model is not an object of this paper, some definitions are

necessary and therefore presented. When analyzing fatigue

tests, sample-to-sample variation can produce fatigue test

specimens with different dynamic modulus when compared

to the samples tested to obtain this last property. That can

be taken into account in the analysis of fatigue results by

performing short dynamic modulus tests at the fatigue test

frequency but using low force values (limiting strain to very

low levels, around 40με), prior to the fatigue test. Such pro-

cedure is called fingerprint test. Its results can be analyzed

using the definition of dynamic modulus ratio (DMR), con-

sisting in the ratio between the dynamic modulus of the

sample tested for fatigue (*

fingerprintE ) and the mean dy-

namic modulus for the tested mixture, predicted using the

fitted Prony series parameters ( *

LVEE ), i.e., in conditions

of linear viscoelasticity. Using the definition of DMR, the

material integrity, in a given loading cycle, can be calcu-

lated from:

The subscript "pp" indicates that the quantity is taken

from a peak to the following (actually, a valley) in the sig-

nal. It is equivalent to the amplitude of that signal. The

peak-to-peak strain amplitude can be calculated considering

the ratio between the mean LVDT displacement amplitude

and the distance between the LVDT measurements (the

gauge length, or GL). The peak-to-peak stress is equivalent

to the force amplitude divided by the cross section circular

area of the cylindrical sample. Finally, the peak-to-peak

pseudostrain can be calculated by:

RdS W

dt S

(3)

*

.

pp

R

pp

CDMR

(4)

*.R

pp pp LVEE (5)

Figure 2. Example of |E*| and phase angle results in controlled crosshead fatigue tests

0

10

20

30

40

50

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000 14000

N

Dynamic Modulus

On-specimen LVDT phase angle

Actuator LVDT phase angle

Ph

ase

An

gle

(de

gree

s)

Dyn

amic

Mo

du

lus

(MP

a)

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Interpreting fatigue tests in hot mix asphalt (HMA) using concepts from viscoelasticity and damage mechanics

TRANSPORTES, v. 23, n. 2 (2015), p. 85-94 89

One of the considerations made in the S-VECD is

that only tension induces damage. So, although all strain

amplitude is used to calculate the material integrity, it can-

not be used to calculate the value of the damage accumula-

tion. In fact, only the tension amplitude pseudo strain could

be used, therefore it needs to be calculated. In the cyclic

tests analysis, this is considered in the calculations through

the use of the parameter , known as the functional form

factor. The value of the functional form parameter depends

on the peak and on the valley values of the force signal at

each cycle. It can be observed that, if the signal is centered

in the time axis, i.e., the mean value of the force is zero,

then 0 . The resulting value for this parameter serves at

estimating the tension amplitude pseudostrain ( R

ta ) from

the peak-to-peak pseudostrain, as indicated in Equation 6.

If the signal is centered ( 0 ), the tension ampli-

tude pseudostrain is equal to half of the peak-to-peak pseu-

dostrain. If there is only tension in the test ( 1 ), then the

tension amplitude pseudostrain is equal to the peak-to-peak

pseudostrain. If there is only compression in the test

( 1 ), then the tension amplitude pseudostrain is equal

to zero. This will serve to disregard the damage accumula-

tion that would be calculated from compressive forces, as it

is assumed not to exist. Another factor that is used to ac-

count for the period where samples are being damaged, i.e.,

where tension force is applied, is the form adjustment fac-

tor, 1K . Using those parameters, which depend strictly on

the loading, and the test results (stress and strain signals),

the damage for the cyclic data can be calculated applying

the assumed damage evolution law formula (Equation 3). It

can be shown that Equation 7 represents its discretization

form, where the subscript "k" represents the analyzed load-

ing cycle.

After all described calculation, the evolution of C

and S with time can be constructed. These curves are very

influenced by the test conditions. However, if the observa-

tions made by Daniel and Kim (2002) that  C vs S is a ma-

terial property, and those by Chehab (2002) that the TTSP

applies for both undamaged and damaged states, eliminat-

ing the time parameter should allow one to obtain a

unique C vs S curve, i.e., the damage curves must col-

lapse. Exponential or power models are commonly used to

fit the damage characteristic curves. In this paper, a power

law model was used (Equation 8).

In Equation 8, 11 C . and 12C are material constants to

be determined for the power law model in order to fit test

results. These parameters can be used to represent the ma-

terial integrity evolution with respect to the damage accu-

mulation. Final equations for estimating the number of cy-

cles of failure of a material using its damage properties can

be found elsewhere (Underwood et al., 2012).

3. MATERIALS AND METHODS

The asphalt mixture investigated in the present re-

search is a dense asphalt concrete with 12.5mm nominal

maximum aggregate size. The asphalt binder is classified

by penetration as a 50/70. From its linear viscoelastic char-

acterization following the Superpave performance grade

system, it is classified as a PG 64-22. For the designed air

void content (4.0%), the required asphalt binder content was

6.0% (by weight of the mix). The resulting maximum theo-

retical specific gravity (Gmm) was 2.392. The referred as-

phalt mixture was initially selected for the research because

it is commonly used in surface layers in the state of Ceará,

Brazil (where the work was conducted), and also because

this information was readily available (Coutinho, 2012;

Oliveira 2014).

The materials tested for this paper were a reference

mixture (RMix), and that very mixture subjected to an aging

process, which has led to the production of a stiffer mixture

(SMix). The aging process consisted of maintaining the

loose mixture at 85ºC for 2 days in an oven prior to com-

paction. The aging procedure was adapted from a RILEM

protocol presented by Partl et al. (2012). More information

about different asphalt mixture experimental aging proce-

dures can be found in Oliveira (2014). The Gmm for SMix

was found to be 2.403. Sample compaction process con-

ducted in the Superpave gyratory compactor (SGC) was set

to stop at 150mm sample height. The obtained mean air

voids for the tested mixtures were 4.3% for RMix and 4.5%

for SMix.

3.1. State-of-the-Practice and State-of-the-Art Characterization

The ABNT NBR 16018 (2011) protocol was used to

obtain the value of the RM for the two mixtures investi-

gated. Two LVDTs placed in the horizontal diameter of

Marshall (100mm diameter by 63.5mm height) specimens

(perpendicular to the compression load application direc-

tion) were used. Subsequently, controlled force indirect ten-

sile fatigue tests using loads corresponding to 30, 40 and

50% of ITS were conducted. For each mixture, three sam-

ples per stress amplitude were tested for fatigue using the

controlled force indirect tensile test.

AASHTO T 342 (2011) was the test protocol adopted

for asphalt mixture complex modulus (stiffness) character-

ization. The results are typically shown in master curves for

both *  E . and φ . Mean results were obtained from tests

conducted for four Superpave samples of 100mm diameter

by 150mm height, using three axial LVDTs mounted 120º

apart on the surface of the sample, around its circumference.

Fingerprint tests (short-time complex modulus tests, at

small strain amplitudes) were conducted in order to select

the load pulse to be used during the complex modulus tests.

It was expected to reach strain amplitudes in the interval

between 60 and 75με. At such strain levels, linearity condi-

tions should be respected and negligible strain dependency

(nonlinearity) should be observed. The master curves for

both asphalt mixtures were obtained after horizontally shift-

ing the isotherms, using the Williams-Landel-Ferry (WLF)

law. Controlled crosshead harmonic fatigue tests are con-

ducted using nine asphalt mixture samples per tested asphalt

mixture. The results are used to fit the S-VECD model. The

1

2

R R

ta pp

(6)

/ 12 1/ 1 1/ 1* *

k 1 1Δ Δ K2

R

ta k k

DMRS C C

(7)

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90 TRANSPORTES v. 23, n. 2 (2015), p. 85-94

tests are conducted at different strain levels (around 200,

350 and 500με), using three samples for testing at each one

of them. The target strain levels do not depend on the stiff-

ness of the asphalt mixture. Before every fatigue test, a

short-time tension-compression complex modulus test (fin-

gerprint test previously mentioned) is conducted to capture

sample-to-sample variation. LVDT geometry is exactly the

same as in the complex modulus tests. Prior to testing, sam-

ples are glued to top and bottom endplates. Figure 3 illus-

trates the sample preparation (gluing of the endplates) pro-

cess (a) and the mounted fatigue test as well as the samples

to be tested, which are accommodated over a flexible mate-

rial in order to minimize any stress in the sample before

testing (b).

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1. Linear Viscoelastic Characterization

The stiffness characterization results are presented in

master curves obtained using 21.1ºC as a reference temper-

ature for both *  E and φ , as indicated in Figures 4a and

4b. The master curves for both asphalt mixtures investi-

gated were obtained after horizontally shifting the iso-

therms, using the WLF law. It can be seen that *E for the

SMix is slightly higher than for the RMix. Those asphalt

mixtures differ only by their asphalt binder characteristics,

the asphalt binder in SMix being stiffer as a result of the

fabrication process previously described. The scatter of φ

results may not present a clear trend for the phase angle as

aging evolves, as seen in Figure 4b. However, there is an

indication that the peak value of the phase angle occurred at

lower reduced frequencies for SMix than for RMix, which

is also a consequence of the aging procedure. The peak

phase angle seems to occur around 2.10-2Hz for RMix, and

around 9.10-3Hz for SMix.

4.1.1. Linear Viscoelasticity Modeling

The discrete relaxation and retardation spectra ob-

tained for the studied asphalt mixtures are summarized in

Tables 1a and 1b. These parameters describe the linear vis-

coelastic behavior of the asphalt mixtures and can be used

to simulate any loading path that does not cause material

nonlinearities, e.g., plasticity or damage. The models sum-

marized in Table 1a presented a satisfactory fitting to the

experimental data as seen in Figure 5. Those presented in

Table 1b (Prony series for the creep compliance) were ob-

tained by the interconversion procedure presented by Park

and Schapery (1999). The good fitting was observed for

both the storage modulus E (fitting input) and the loss

modulus E (not the fitting input). This indicates that line-

arity limits were respected during the laboratory tests.

4.2. Damage Characterization

In this section, direct tension-compression fatigue re-

sults for RMix and SMix are described and compared. The

S-VECD model is fitted to the results from the direct ten-

sion-compression tests using a MatLab routine (Babadopu-

los, 2014). Figure 6 presents the obtained damage charac-

teristic curves, where the estimated values for the curve pa-

rameters are presented in the legend. The fitted lines for

each mixture tested were plotted until the respective mean

value of the material integrity at failure was reached (values

indicated in Table 2).

The values of the obtained material integrity at failure

( fC ) and the damage accumulation at failure ( fS ) are pre-

sented in Table 2. Estimates of their coefficient of variation

(CV) are also provided.

(a)

(b) Figure 3. a) Illustration of the gluing process of the endplates to the asphalt mixture sample; b) Illustration of mounted fatigue test in UTM-25 and samples accommodated over a flexible material

(a)

(b)

Figure 4. Dynamic Modulus (a), and Phase Angle (b) Master Curves

1,0E+01

1,0E+02

1,0E+03

1,0E+04

1,0E+05

1,0E-05 1,0E-01 1,0E+03 1,0E+07

Dyn

amic

Mo

du

lus

(MP

a)

Reduced Frequency (Hz)

Master Curve at21.1C for RMixMaster Curve at21.1C for SMix

1,0E+01

1,0E+02

1,0E+03

1,0E+04

1,0E+05

1,0E-05 1,0E-01 1,0E+03 1,0E+07

Dyn

amic

Mo

du

lus

(MP

a)

Reduced Frequency (Hz)

Master Curve at21.1C for RMixMaster Curve at21.1C for SMix

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Interpreting fatigue tests in hot mix asphalt (HMA) using concepts from viscoelasticity and damage mechanics

TRANSPORTES, v. 23, n. 2 (2015), p. 85-94 91

The first aspect to be observed is that RMix presents,

with respect to SMix, very near C vs S curves for damage

accumulation until arround 3×104. It is to be remembered

that, due to the definition of the damage accumulation

(Equation 3), its unit is

/ 1 1/ 1

stress time

and has

few physical meaning. The damage accumulation serves as

a sort of "damage counting". After that point ( S 3×104),

the damage characteristic curve for SMix presents higher

values of material integrity ( C ) than RMix for the same

values of damage accumulation ( S ). As the asphalt mix-

tures present different stiffness and damage curves, higher

values of material integrity for a given value of damage ac-

cumulation do not mean more resistant materials. Babadop-

ulos (2014) presents some constant on-specimen strain am-

plitude fatigue simulations using aged and unaged mixtures

in order to illustrate that using Whöler curves. Material in-

tegrity at failure was also higher for SMix than for RMix.

This means that the material in SMix failed for less evolved

damaged conditions (with less damage tolerance), i.e., with

lower loss in undamaged cross sectional area from the point

of view of Lemaitre and Chaboche's (1990) damage varia-

ble ( D , which can be easily obtained from material integ-

rity as 1D C ). However, it is to be observed that high

CV in measures of material integrity at failure were ob-

tained (21% for RMix and 38% for SMix).

Another important material characteristic for damage

modeling is the parameter , directly linked to the maxi-

mum relaxation rate of the material, as presented in the lit-

erature review. The average results for were 2.933 for

the RMix and 3.089 for the SMix. The damage parameter

value is higher for SMix because the maximum absolute

log-log derivative of the relaxation modulus was lower for

SMix, i.e., the maximum relaxation rate of the material was

lower. This was expected, because of the trend for stiffer

and more elastic (lower phase angles) material after an ag-

ing procedure. Although slight differences in the mean be-

havior of the tested materials were observed, sufficient var-

iation was obtained in order to observe that both asphalt

mixtures behave actually similarly with respect to damage.

Table 2. Mean and CV of material integrity and damage accumu-lation values at failure

Parameter / Mixture RMix SMix

Mean Cf 0.29 0.37

CV (%) 21 38

Mean Sf 100,897 100,387

CV (%) 21 42

(a)

(b)

Figure 5. Measured and Modeled Storage and Loss Moduli for (a) RMix, (b) SMix

1,0E+00

1,0E+01

1,0E+02

1,0E+03

1,0E+04

1,0E+05

1,0E-05 1,0E-02 1,0E+01 1,0E+04 1,0E+07

Mo

du

lus

(MP

a)

Reduced frequency (Hz)

Storage ModulusLoss ModulusProny series

1,0E+00

1,0E+01

1,0E+02

1,0E+03

1,0E+04

1,0E+05

1,0E-05 1,0E-02 1,0E+01 1,0E+04 1,0E+07M

od

ulu

s (M

Pa)

Reduced frequency (Hz)

Storage ModulusLoss ModulusProny series

Table 1. (a) Relaxation Spectra and (b) Retardation Spectra for the tested asphalt mixtures

RMix SMix

E∞ (MPa) = 60 75

ρi (s) Ei (MPa) Ei (MPa)

1.00E-07 1.62E+03 1.90E+03

1.00E-06 2.65E+03 2.78E+03

1.00E-05 3.87E+03 4.20E+03

1.00E-04 4.67E+03 4.66E+03

1.00E-03 4.82E+03 4.89E+03

1.00E-02 2.84E+03 3.48E+03

1.00E-01 4.42E+03 4.11E+03

1.00E+00 1.32E+03 1.81E+03

1.00E+01 3.02E+02 6.35E+02

1.00E+02 1.45E+02 1.54E+02

1.00E+03 3.02E+01 6.05E+01

RMix SMix

D0 (MPa-1) = 3.74E-05 3.48E-05

ρj (s) Dj (MPa-1) Dj (MPa-1)

1.00E-07 2.21E-06 2.25E-06

1.00E-06 4.34E-06 4.01E-06

1.00E-05 8.00E-06 7.58E-06

1.00E-04 1.47E-05 1.32E-05

1.00E-03 3.01E-05 2.47E-05

1.00E-02 4.27E-05 3.92E-05

1.00E-01 7.79E-05 8.00E-05

1.00E+00 4.44E-04 2.88E-04

1.00E+01 1.59E-03 8.50E-04

1.00E+02 3.63E-03 3.10E-03

1.00E+03 1.04E-02 7.34E-03

(a) (b)

Figure 6. Damage characteristic curves for the investigated aging states

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1

1,2

0,0E+00 2,0E+04 4,0E+04 6,0E+04 8,0E+04 1,0E+05

Mat

eri

al in

tegr

ity

-C

Damage Accumulation - S

Power Law - RMix; C_11 = 5.41E-04 and C_12 = 6.33E-01

Power Law - SMix; C_11 = 1.33E-03 and C_12 = 5.42E-01

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BABADOPULOS, L.F.A.L.; SOARES, J.B.; CASTELO BRANCO, V.T.F.

92 TRANSPORTES v. 23, n. 2 (2015), p. 85-94

4.3. Conventional Characterization Results

Three asphalt mixture Marshall samples were tested

for ITS and RM, while nine were tested for fatigue, all tests

conducted were conducted at 25ºC. RM tests were per-

formed using a 0.05MPa load, corresponding to approxi-

mately 5% of the ITS of the asphalt mixtures. For the fa-

tigue results, Whöler curves were constructed using

30, 40 and 50% of the ITS. Average results for ITS

were obtained as 1.21MPa for RMix and 1.04MPa for

SMix. Results for RM were 3,570MPa for RMix and

3,789MPa for SMix (6% increase). Results present the ex-

pected general trend of increase in RM after the aging pro-

cess to produce SMix. The unexpected result was the ITS

for SMix. As only three samples were tested, randomness

may be an explanation for such results. It needs to be ob-

served that conclusions drawn from them are only valid for

the very specific observed loading conditions (25ºC, exactly

the same loading configuration used in the tests). Due to the

viscoelastic properties of asphalt mixtures, it is not possible

to reliably use those observations to estimate behavior un-

der different loading conditions. That constitutes a defi-

ciency of this method with respect to more mechanistic

methods. Figure 7 presents the Whöler curves for failure as

obtained for the controlled force indirect tensile fatigue

tests.

One could infer that the aged mixture (SMix) behave

much better than the unaged mixture (RMix) ( log fN for

SMix approximately 0.8 greater than log fN for RMix). De-

pending on the loading conditions, the number of cycles to

failure for the aged mixture can be approximately (100.8 =

6.3) six times greater than the one found for the RMix. That

kind of conclusion can be inducted by many factors, such

as the use of controlled force mode test. As presented in the

literature review, the only controlled stress value in this

mode is the stress at the beginning of the test, i.e. in its first

loading cycle (when none or very low damage has oc-

curred). When damage occurs, after some loading cycles,

the same force used in the beginning to produce a certain

strain level leads to higher strain levels and higher effective

stresses values, because the undamaged cross sectional area

is lower after the damage, and consequently apparent stiff-

ness is also decreased. This happens even faster as damage

evolves, until the material fails. In other words, samples

with different stiffness, tested at the same initial controlled

stress, can actually face different solicitation in terms of

stress and strain. For stiffer asphalt mixtures (as the aged

asphalt mixture) and the same applied initial stress, lower

values of initial strain amplitude are applied and the test

tends to require more cycle repetitions to cause failure.

A second reason is that, when the material fails, it is

not possible to separate the fatigue contribution from the

part due to the creep flow accumulation. As the force is al-

ways applied in the same direction, deformation accumu-

lates, because the material is viscoelastic and flows. When

high strains are accumulated, damage evolves. So, the num-

ber of cycles to failure obtained from this test does not cor-

respond to fatigue failure only. For the tested materials, the

stiffer asphalt mixture may have behaved much better in the

state-of-the-practice test because it flows less, which leads

to less accumulation of creep strain, retarding failure in that

test. The misinterpretation addressed here, which is led by

the results from tests like the indirect tensile fatigue tests,

was already observed in the literature (Di Benedetto and De

La Roche, 1998).

From the presented results, it is possible to observe

how controlled force indirect tensile fatigue tests may mis-

lead to the conclusion that stiffer asphalt mixtures perform

much better than less stiff asphalt mixtures. Such conclu-

sion is not only temerarious when it comes to pavement

analysis, but also it is not in agreement with the mechanistic

based characterization results.

5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE WORK

This paper addressed issues related to the state-of-

the-practice asphalt mixture fatigue characterization

method in Brazil using controlled force indirect tensile

tests. A state-of-the-art method for damage characterization

was used to obtain damage characteristics in order to inter-

pret the fatigue phenomenon. Two asphalt mixtures with the

same aggregate gradation, differing only by their stiffness

were tested. When the stiffer asphalt mixture was evaluated

in force controlled fatigue tests, the tests pointed to the con-

clusion that it behaves, with respect to fatigue life, more

than six times better than the reference asphalt mixture (for

which no aging procedure was applied). On the other hand,

as a more mechanistic procedure for characterization of

damage behavior was adopted, less difference was observed

between the asphalt mixtures. It is important to be observed,

however, that the simulation using the material properties

and a given loading path is a necessary step to make con-

clusions about the behavior of that material for that loading

path. One could use different values of strain level (in the

range of those occurring in the asphalt mixture layer of an

actual pavement) and use those values as input for fatigue

simulation using the damage characteristic curve obtained

for the material. An example of the aforementioned proce-

dure is presented in Babadopulos (2014). In addition, it is

Figure 7. Controlled force indirect tensile fatigue tests for RMix (in blue) and SMix (in red)

y = 8.43x-4.913

R² = 0.99

y = 50.49x-4.452

R² = 0.96

1,0E+01

1,0E+02

1,0E+03

1,0E+04

1,0E+05

0,1 1,0N

fΔσ (MPa)

RMix

SMix

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Interpreting fatigue tests in hot mix asphalt (HMA) using concepts from viscoelasticity and damage mechanics

TRANSPORTES, v. 23, n. 2 (2015), p. 85-94 93

to be considered that asphalt mixtures presenting greater fa-

tigue life (as commonly defined by simply the number of

cycles to failure) under a certain loading path do not neces-

sarily present greater fatigue life in a different loading con-

dition.

It was concluded that two main issues might mislead

the results from the asphalt mixture controlled force indirect

tensile fatigue tests. The first one is the fact that the stress

amplitude is controlled only in the first loading cycle and

different materials are tested with different loading ampli-

tudes. That makes it difficult to compare results for differ-

ent asphalt mixtures. The second issue is the fact that in in-

direct tensile tests, the direction of the load is always the

same. The material flows in a creep like behavior during the

test, leading to damage and contributing to failure. It is ac-

tually not possible to separate fatigue damage from creep

flow damage in indirect tensile fatigue tests. Finally, it is

important to observe that the indirect tensile test induces a

non-homogeneous stress and strain state, leading to a non-

homogeneous damage evolution within the sample, which

makes this test very difficult to interpret. This is also true

for other fatigue tests. Thus, results from such tests can mis-

lead the judgment of analysts and therefore produce false

conclusions for fatigue simulations. It is necessary to pro-

gressively change from the controlled force indirect tensile

fatigue test towards a more mechanistic characterization

procedure.

As a final remark, simulations of stress controlled ho-

mogeneous tests (e.g. controlled stress uniaxial tension-

compression tests) could be performed using the S-VECD

material model and the characterization results obtained in

this paper. The results could be compared with experi-

mental observations for the indirect tensile tests, which are

considered to be “stress controlled” tests. However, it is to

be noticed that indirect tensile tests are inhomogeneous in

stress and strain, while the referred S-VECD simulation is

not. Such fact constitutes a first difficulty in interpreting

eventual differences between model and simulation. An al-

ternative method that could take into account the heteroge-

neity of the indirect tensile test would be the use of the S-

VECD model associated with a Finite Element analysis of

the test. Modeling results could, then, be compared to the

experimental results in a more rigorous way. In this paper,

this is left as a recommendation for future work.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors acknowledge CNPq for funding the au-

thors' respective scholarships. The authors are also thankful

to Luis Alberto do Hermann Nascimento from Petrobras for

his support of this research at LMP/UFC.

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